Alexandra MacLaren

Alex is an RIBA/RIAS Chartered Architect and fellow of the RSA and the HEA. She is Associate Executive Dean (Education & Student Life) for the School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society (EGIS) - and was previously Senior Director of Studies (SDOS) for Multi-campus Architectural Engineering at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She is a nationally-recognised Leader in Innovation in Teaching. (THE 2025)

Alex's research interests are in built-environment cross-disciplinary collaboration, and training the future industry to meet the Climate Emergency. Her extensive background in practice, and senior position in academia, mean Alex is ideally placed to trial pedagogic initiatives which aim to bridge the recognised gap between construction education and training, and industry practice.

Alex haprevious worked at a number of HE institutions, including the Universities of Brighton and Edinburgh, and served as External Examiner at the Universities of Sheffield, Liverpool, Greenwich and the University of the West of England (Bristol- and includes SHAPE, Hong Kong).

Outside academia, Alex is active in the industry-wide group 'ZERO' committed to raising the industry profile of embodied carbon, in an effort to reduce industry emissions. As part of this effort she is pioneering programmes for higher education syllabi across the UK, working between construction subjects and with professionals outside of the university. She believes that smart education and training for students, honing trans-disciplinary communication and social skills, is essential to effectively implement the technical evolution of the construction industry, and inspire future generations.

Alex led the Heriot Watt University student team 'ESTEEM' in their bid to win the Solar Decathlon Middle East (SDME), an extraordinary project to design, fabricate and build a solar-powered mass timber house, then ship it to Dubai for World EXPO 2021. She inspired the team to achieve unparallelled community and industry engagement in their pioneering project, impacting thousands. This kind of challenge and opportunity epitomises the educational learning experience that Alex relishes sharing with students.

Collaborative Pedagogy, Climate Emergency, Digital Tools, links between Industry and Academia, student-led curricula, live projects, community engagement, interdisciplinary practice in the construction industry.

Acdemic Lead for the Solar decathlon Middle East 2020 Project
Leader of the Final-Year Collaborative Project (all UG built-enviornment disciplines)
Leader of the EGIS Year 1 Collaborative Project

(ex Heriot-Watt)

Practising Architect: Partner in Wyatt MacLaren LLP and engineroom LLP
External Examiner at University of Sheffield and the University of the West of England ( Bristol- and includes SHAPE, Hong Kong)

(previously)
Director of Education for Teambuild UK
Built Environment Expert at the Design Council